Thursday, July 6, 2017

Bees & Germander

by Michelle L. Dauberman

The plight of the bee is getting more and more serious if
you ask me. I’ve been doing my
best to support them in the vegetable garden and in the landscape by providing
the plants, shrubs and trees that they love to visit but here’s a small shrubby
plant/herb that I’ve overlooked:
Germander (Teucrium).

Germander is quite hardy and can handle a variety of
garden/landscape situations including poor soils and drought like conditions.It can tolerate part-sun but prefers
full-sun.The lavender flowers
that the bees find so appealing form on spikes, July through September.A bonus of this plant is that there are
evergreen varieties so, if you’d rather use it in your landscape as a low
laying hedge rather than in the herb or vegetable garden, have at it.You’ll have something green to look at
while everything else is dormant.

These are tense days for the bees so think about using this non-native
(yes, I said not native) small sub-shrub as a compliment to your other native pollinator
friendly plants, shrubs and trees and bring on the bees!

If you’d like to take a
look at this plant in action visit the PSU Edible Demonstration Garden at the
Horticultural Center, in the beautiful Fairmont Park, right here in
Philadelphia. I promise you won’t
be disappointed.

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Philadelphia master Gardeners

The mission of the Penn State Extension Master Gardener volunteer program is to support the Penn State Cooperative Extension by utilizing research-based information to educate the public on best practices in consumer horticulture and environmental stewardship. Master Gardeners serve their communities by helping the public with horticulture, gardening, and pest management by providing educational workshops , answer gardening questions on the hortline, and provide school children and adults with gardening programs.